MARITIME ARCHAEOLOGICAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF PROPOSED AQUACULTURE AREAS 1, 6 AND 7, ALGOA BAY, EASTERN CAPE PROVINCE Assessment conducted under Section 38 (8) of the National Heritage Resources Act (No. 25 of 1999) as part of a Basic Assessment Prepared for Anchor Research & Monitoring (Pty) Ltd On behalf of Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries February 2019 Prepared by John Gribble ACO Associates cc Physical: Unit D17, Prime Park, 21 Mocke Rd, Diep River Postal: 8 Jacobs Ladder St James, 7945
[email protected] Tel: 021 7064104 Cell: 078 616 2961 Fax to e-mail: 086 603 7195 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ACO Associates cc has been requested by Anchor Research & Monitoring (Pty) Ltd on behalf of Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries to undertake a desktop maritime archaeological impact assessment of three areas within Algoa Bay under consideration as aquaculture areas, namely Algoa 1, 6 and 7. This maritime heritage assessment report, supported by recommendations for implementable mitigation measures will form part of a Basic Assessment for the proposed development of aquaculture in Algoa Bay. Findings: In respect of submerged prehistoric archaeological potential, this assessment indicates that although there have, to date, been no specific studies of the submerged prehistory of Algoa Bay, the archaeological evidence for a hominin presence in the Algoa Bay region in the Earlier, Middle and Later Stone Age is plentiful. At various times in the last 900,000 global glacial cycles have caused substantial drops in sea level and the current seabed of Algoa Bay would have been exposed as a terrestrial landscape. Ancient river courses, whose channels are today buried under modern seabed sediment, would have been an important focus for hominin activity on the exposed continental shelf in the past and there is the potential for the occurrence of ancient, submerged archaeological material in association with palaeo- river channels.